webfact Posted April 29, 2020 Share Posted April 29, 2020 UK to test 100,000 people for COVID-19 to check spread General view outside Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, following the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), London, Britain, April 29, 2020. REUTERS/John Sibley LONDON (Reuters) - Britain plans to test a randomly chosen group of 100,000 people for COVID-19 as part of its efforts to understand infection rates better before loosening restrictions on the public, its health ministry said on Thursday. The tests to see if people are currently infected with the respiratory disease, led by London's Imperial College and polling company Ipsos MORI, follow a separate testing programme announced last week by the University of Oxford and the Office for National Statistics. Britain's government is due to review next week whether to relax a nationwide lockdown brought in on March 23 to slow the spread of the coronavirus, which has so far killed more than 26,000 people in Britain. Improving capacity to track infection rates in different parts of Britain is seen by the health ministry as essential to ease restrictions safely. Britain has suffered from limited testing capacity and Health Minister Matt Hancock promised to increase the number of tests to 100,000 a day by the end of April. On Tuesday, just over 52,000 tests were carried out. The Imperial College programme will shortly contact 100,000 people across England at random and send them self-testing kits to see if they are infected. A later part of the study will test the public's ability to self-administer antibody tests that show whether someone has had COVID-19 but is no longer infected, which may confer some immunity against the disease caused by the novel coronavirus. So far, British officials have not found an antibody test that works reliably enough to roll out on a large scale. (Reporting by David Milliken; Editing by Peter Cooney) -- © Copyright Reuters 2020-04-30 - Whatever you're going through, the Samaritans are here for you - Follow Thaivisa on LINE for breaking COVID-19 updates Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Chomper Higgot Posted April 30, 2020 Popular Post Share Posted April 30, 2020 ‘The Imperial College programme will shortly contact 100,000 people across England at random and send them self-testing kits to see if they are infected.’ At last somebody who who knows what they are doing is on the job. 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
welovesundaysatspace Posted April 30, 2020 Share Posted April 30, 2020 7 minutes ago, Chomper Higgot said: ‘The Imperial College programme will shortly contact 100,000 people across England at random and send them self-testing kits to see if they are infected Self-testing kits? How is anyone going to ensure those tests were taken correctly then? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chomper Higgot Posted April 30, 2020 Share Posted April 30, 2020 1 hour ago, welovesundaysatspace said: Self-testing kits? How is anyone going to ensure those tests were taken correctly then? From the OP: “A later part of the study will test the public's ability to self-administer antibody tests...” 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kadilo Posted April 30, 2020 Share Posted April 30, 2020 (edited) I think they will be in for a surprise. I read the number of people that could be Positive and asymptomatic was believed to be as high as 10%. I work offshore and my company has in the past week started testing everyone before leaving and returned 3 positive cases which so far supports that figure. Edited April 30, 2020 by Kadilo 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ukrules Posted April 30, 2020 Share Posted April 30, 2020 2 hours ago, Kadilo said: I think they will be in for a surprise. I read the number of people that could be Positive and asymptomatic was believed to be as high as 10%. I work offshore and my company has in the past week started testing everyone before leaving and returned 3 positive cases which so far supports that figure. If they had it a month ago they should test negative by now so until they find a reliable enough antibody test I wonder if there's much if any value in this approach, especially if it takes a few weeks to complete. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sawadee1947 Posted April 30, 2020 Share Posted April 30, 2020 Germany tests Half a Million every week. Results see JHU. Poor UK health system Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
welovesundaysatspace Posted May 1, 2020 Share Posted May 1, 2020 14 hours ago, sawadee1947 said: Germany tests Half a Million every week. Results see JHU. Poor UK health system The last thing I read was that Germany doesn’t fully utilize its test capacities but has lots of underutilized test capacity (which is course doesn’t have to contradict that it’s testing half a million every week). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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